I'm an author of books for young readers. These days, there’s nothing more important than having conversations about the Coronavirus disease. It can be hard for grown-ups to start a conversation about Covid with their kids. But they can read a book about the subject and invite the kids to respond to what they heard and saw. My book COVID-19 Helpers was the first place winner of the Emery Global Health Institute’s e-book contest back in May 2020. Through the pandemic, I’ve been reading and talking about the virus with kids from around the world. If you're interested in having me read one of my books to your school, clinic, or your daycare center feel free to get in touch.
After months of wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing, kids can now help reduce the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic by getting a vaccine. It’s a tiny task that not only gives kids their own protection from the virus, it also helps protect their family, their friends, and their whole community. In straightforward language, this book explains to kids how vaccines will help us rid the world of COVID-19 and how they have a role to play in that mission.
This book helps kids and grown-ups talk about their own experiences, questions, thoughts, and concerns that have arisen during the pandemic.
This picture book biography does so many things at once—and does it all with a masterful, lyrical storytelling voice. Of course, the primary thing this book does is tell the story of a real person’s life: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In this story, we learn about his ordinary childhood, his personal interests, and the ways his family inspired and encouraged him. It shows that even people we see on the news were once children, just like the kids reading this book. More than that, this book is a celebration of science and the excitement of scientific discoveries.
It reminds kids (and grown-ups) that science is a creative endeavour. So once the urgency of learning about the COVID virus wanes, this book will be still valuable as a primer on how scientists do their work. Additionally, though the narrative part of the story doesn’t get too deep into the medical and scientific elements of the coronavirus, at the end of the book you will find informational pages about vaccines and the pursuit of science. Even though he’s known these days for his work with COVID, Fauci is first and foremost a scientist. And author Kate Messner is a master at writing picture book biographies. What a great combination!
The definitive picture book biography of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one of the most crucial figures in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before he was Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci was a curious boy in Brooklyn, delivering prescriptions from his father's pharmacy on his blue Schwinn bicycle. His father and immigrant grandfather taught Anthony to ask questions, consider all the data, and never give up-and Anthony's ability to stay curious and to communicate with people would serve him his entire life.
I love simple graphical picture books. I love books with a sense of humor. I love books that are interactive, talk directly to the audience, and get kids to physically act out things as they’re being read to. This story has so many elements that I love…I wish I wrote it! The story explains that microbes are everywhere and invites the reader to touch the book and pick up a tiny microbe that is lounging in the paper. Then it invites the reader to touch one of their teeth. This transfers the microbe into their mouth. The book goes on to prompt the reader to discover the microbes in their clothes and their belly buttons! Yuck, right? Well, that kind of yuck is an effective way of demonstrating the point that after you touch stuff, it’s a good idea to wash your hands.
Min is a microbe. She is small. Very small. In fact so small that you'd need to look through a microscope to see her. Or you can simply open this book and take Min on an adventure to amazing places she's never seen before - like the icy glaciers of your tooth or the twisted, tangled jungle that is your shirt.The perfect book for anyone who wants to take a closer look at the world.
This book is for older children. I would offer it to strong readers in grades 4 through 6. Now that I think about it, it would probably be a really informative read for grown-ups… it doesn’t take long to get through the whole book, and the straightforward tone leaves little room for emotions or biases. It’s a refreshing presentation of the facts (though the content, of course, is not “refreshing”). This book opens with a vignette about the lockdown in March 2020 and then goes into a factual description of viruses in general and the coronavirus in particular. It then talks about the early spread of this new disease, the search for treatments, and even the overall economic and governmental impacts that stemmed from the whole phenomenon.
At the end of this book, there are a couple of interesting additions. You will find two timelines: A timeline of the coronavirus disease, and a timeline of the “world” that includes events such as the World Wars and the onset of the HIV virus. I assume this “world” timeline is included to provide background for young kids who may not yet have an established historical context. This book also includes a lengthy bibliography, which includes websites. If you have the electronic version of this book, you can click on the embedded web addresses and go directly to those sites for further reading.
The #1 New York Times Best-Selling series tells the story of how COVID-19, a coronavirus, was first identified and how it spread throughout the world in the new Who HQ Now format for trending topics.
The coronavirus disease COVID-19 emerged in November 2019. By March 2020, cities all around the world closed schools, offices, restaurants and other public spaces deemed "non-essential" in an attempt to contain the fast-spreading virus. People struggled to follow government orders, stay indoors, and limit contact with others. But the virus that caused one of the world's deadliest pandemics eventually killed over five million people worldwide.…
This book encourages little ones to read along with a recurring refrain, “Don’t let your dragon spread germs!” The premise of this book is that children have to teach their pet dragons hygiene. In using this logic, the story puts the young characters in the book in the position of the teacher-caregivers. The illustrator, Andy Elkerton, did a great job with the dragons. Each dragon has its own personality and the illustrations are full of energy and motion. Those colorful, dynamic dragons are fun for kids to look at while a grown-up reads the text.
Your dragon loves to hug and high-five and shake hands and sing and blow bubbles and share happiness everywhere she goes. Dragons want to spread joy to everyone! But some of those actions are also spreading germs. It's time to wash your hands, mask up and teach your dragon how to share joy in a safe and healthy way. Author Julie Gassman uses rhyming text, relatable examples and a diverse cast of characters to teach readers about germs in the sixth book in the Do Not Take Your Dragon picture book series.
The whimsical illustrations in this book caught my attention and captured my heart. The colors in this book are lovely pastels and the text is simple so there’s lots of room to admire the images. I am partial to picture books that are simple and emotional. As we continue on for so many months making the extra effort to wear masks in our daily lives, there’s something heartening in seeing pictures of other people happily wearing masks on the pages of this book. The text is written in sets of rhyming pairs, which are sometimes a stretch. I appreciate that this book for young readers shows a diverse group of people all merrily going about their tasks while wearing protective face masks.
We Wear Masks is a fun tool to help children make sense of this new reality and make wearing masks less scary and more relatable.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children have been introduced to wearing face masks and seeing others in masks. Author and illustrator Marla Lesage normalizes mask-wearing by introducing young readers to artists, ranchers, pilots, welders, scientists and many more people who already wear masks in their day-to-day lives. This delightful, rhyming picture book will help explain to children why wearing a mask is important as we interact with others in our communities. Readers will learn that,…
This irreverent biography provides a rare window into the music industry from a promoter’s perspective. From a young age, Peter Jest was determined to make a career in live music, and despite naysayers and obstacles, he did just that, bringing national acts to his college campus atUW-Milwaukee, booking thousands of concerts across Wisconsin and the Midwest, and opening Shank Hall, the beloved Milwaukee venue named after a club in the cult film This Is Spinal Tap.
Jest established lasting friendships with John Prine, Arlo Guthrie, and others, but ultimately, this book tells a universal story of love and hope – about figuring out where you belong, finding your way there, and living a life that matters.
We Had Fun and Nobody Died: Adventures of a Milwaukee Music Promoter
The entertaining and inspiring story of a stubbornly independent promoter and club owner
This irreverent biography provides a rare window into the music industry from a promoter’s perspective. From a young age, Peter Jest was determined to make a career in live music, and despite naysayers and obstacles, he did just that, bringing national acts to his college campus at UW–Milwaukee, booking thousands of concerts across Wisconsin and the Midwest, and opening Shank Hall, the beloved Milwaukee venue named after a club in the cult film This Is Spinal Tap.
This funny, nostalgia-inducing book details the lasting friendships Jest established…
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